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Any thoughts on Stutter Edit 2 ??

Kery Michael

Active Member
Loyalty pricing for Stutter Edit 2 runs out on July 30.

Currently $99. Then it goes up to $199.

Looks interesting, but I'm still not sold. Just wondering if anyone finds it awesome and indispensable or rather, bought it and never used it.
 
Loyalty pricing for Stutter Edit 2 runs out on July 30.

Currently $99. Then it goes up to $199.

Looks interesting, but I'm still not sold. Just wondering if anyone finds it awesome and indispensable or rather, bought it and never used it.
I can’t believe I didn’t get an email or something from IZotope....
I will pick this up, as SE1 is a very useful element to me in my production...
 
It's a huge improvement over SE1, and overall is AWESOME. I'd definitely demo before impulse buying since the UI is very different from SE1. Depending on how familiar or tethered to v1 you are it's pretty huge UI shift.. That said if you /use/like SE1 you'll almost certainly like SE2 more.
 
Barely used it so I can't comment just yet. But Stutter Edit 1 did something great for one of the tracks I'm working on. Looking forward to using version 2 sometime soon.
 
Ah I love Stutter Edit! Definitely going to pick up version 2, looks ace. SE1 is all over this track that won a pitch:



Something I found to be incredibly fun was using drums with multiple mics and sending different mics to different stutter fx patches with varying degrees of wet/dry. It's an inspiration machine and gets loads of cool things done real quick. Ah iZotope, I love 'em, this update looks so good!
 
Wow! Okay. That seems like some pretty universal praise. Thanks everybody for the input!

@Rv5 That track sounds great. Lots of motion and energy!

Leaning towards it, leaning closer towards buying it! Almost there....
 
It's a huge improvement over SE1, and overall is AWESOME. I'd definitely demo before impulse buying since the UI is very different from SE1. Depending on how familiar or tethered to v1 you are it's pretty huge UI shift.. That said if you /use/like SE1 you'll almost certainly like SE2 more.

I don't have SE1 so no problem there!

I'm doing my best to avoid GAS. If I buy something I really, truly want to get good use out of it.
 
A question for people who have upgraded to version 2... Apart from the new interface/workflow, what are you finding are the concrete benefits over version 1?
 
A question for people who have upgraded to version 2... Apart from the new interface/workflow, what are you finding are the concrete benefits over version 1?
There's a lot... The big workflow change is you don't have to route MIDI. You still can, but "auto" mode allows it to work without MIDI.

Plus:
  • The algorithms have been improved a lot.
  • There's a bunch of distortion types from Trash 2. (But they sound cleaner so possibly some oversampling going on under the hood...)
  • Custom envelope/LFO shapes that you can save and load. (Think Massive Performer or Serum Envelopes)
  • Tapestop effect
  • Comb Filter
  • Phaser
  • Chorus
  • Flanger
  • Reverb
  • More patches / better patch management.
  • Drag and drop re-ordering
  • Output limiter

There's a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting off the top of my head. Couple videos below:





 
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Can you use the modulation wheel (or any other MIDI CC) to override the "playhead"?

I never used v1 but I think I saw a video where they demonstrated that.
 
In v1 this feature was called "timeline override". See this bit from the manual:

1595705576322.png

Unfortunately I can't seem to find the new manual for v2.
 
So I got it!

The concept is brilliant but in just a couple of hours I've run into some bugs and some frustrating unexpected limitations.

Most bugs (so far) are related to using it in 4K in Windows. Things like tooltips and right click menus being so small to be almost unreadable or the plugin window resizing every time I open it.

stutter-edit.png

I've also experienced other little bugs like the delay not working properly when using it in LR linked mode.

I've contacted Izotope, let's see what they say.

As for the limitations...

So you have this MSEG editor which doesn't have any "brush" like ShaperBox or other similar plugins. If you want to draw something like a S&H stepped curve you have to go at it point by point which is quite tedious. None of the videos I saw went into detail about how to actually draw the curves and I assumed (my mistake) that a $200 plugin would have that functionality.

There's no way copy and paste curves from one parameter to another. If you apply an MSEG to the filter and then want the same curve on the distortion your only option is to save the curve to a file and to load it. You also don't have a UI to see your stored curves. Good luck to find the right one if you end up with bazillion curves in that folder.

Another frustrating issue is that there is no init "patch". You can start with a clean bank with clean gestures, but these (supposedly) clean gestures have curves in all parameters that you have reset one by one and takes a number of clicks.

All these seemingly small details make your workflow quite slow unless you avoid the MSEG altogether and only use fade modulations.

Also, AFAIK, it cannot be used as a send effect in MIDI mode because whenever you release a key the dry signal comes back. You can configure the dry signal is always on, but this means that, if you want to apply an effect after Stutter Edit, it will be applied to the dry signal too. This is not the case when using it in auto mode (when it loops itself without MIDI notes) but it's kinda of a bummer.

There are also plenty of missed opportunities considering this is intended for live use. The timeline override setting from v1 was removed. Also there are no "global" modulations. It would be great to have LFOs that run independently from the main loop, or random values that can be applied whenever you press a key much like you have in Zebra, Hive 2, and other synths. Not even note velocity is used.

Oh and also, other than the global filter, there is no automation from the DAW.

Don't get me wrong, the plugin is plenty powerful, but I expected a more polished product.


Edit:

Another limitation I've run into. The buffer always starts at a fixed point.

For example, if you press your key when the snare hits in the second beat of your bar, Stutter Edit will actually start playing the kick drum from beat 1 at the start of the bar. I would have expected the buffer to start when I pressed the key instead to be able to stutter the snare or whatever is playing at the moment.

In the buffer effect you can define a different starting point in the recorded bar, so to speak, but this is always fixed in the gesture and not dynamic with your playing.
 
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I've contacted Izotope, let's see what they say.

4 days later, still no response from Izotope...

I think I will just end up selling Stutter Edit 2 on KVR. Even without the bugs, it's not really what I expected it to be.

It's more intended to be used as a DJ tool or an add-clitch-and-randomize-everything of sorts. You can trigger presets (or gestures as they call them) with MIDI, but IMO the workflow is not designed to be used as a compositional tool.

So for example, if you want the same effect but with two different rhythm patterns you need two presets for that. You can of course duplicate presets, but these are independent. If you change other settings now you have to edit the same setting in both presets. What if you want 3-4 different rhythmical patterns for the same effect? You can't even copy and paste modulation patterns inside the same preset so that, for example, the filter and the distortion do the same thing.

Also, like I mentioned before, it's really strange that if this plugin was designed for live use there are no MIDI modulations at all other than the global filter.
 
4 days later, still no response from Izotope...

I think I will just end up selling Stutter Edit 2 on KVR. Even without the bugs, it's not really what I expected it to be.

It's more intended to be used as a DJ tool or an add-clitch-and-randomize-everything of sorts. You can trigger presets (or gestures as they call them) with MIDI, but IMO the workflow is not designed to be used as a compositional tool.

So for example, if you want the same effect but with two different rhythm patterns you need two presets for that. You can of course duplicate presets, but these are independent. If you change other settings now you have to edit the same setting in both presets. What if you want 3-4 different rhythmical patterns for the same effect? You can't even copy and paste modulation patterns inside the same preset so that, for example, the filter and the distortion do the same thing.

Also, like I mentioned before, it's really strange that if this plugin was designed for live use there are no MIDI modulations at all other than the global filter.

Good to see you pushing for comment. Have Stutter Edit and hesitate on SE2 even at Upgrade $79. Expect lots from Izotope and hope answers are forthcoming. :thumbsup:
 
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